


A Conversation After the Stars

by SnowMercury



Series: Silverwing's Tale Novellas/Mini-fics/Super Editions/Etc [2]
Category: Original Work, Silverwing's Tale - Warrior Cats Fancomic, Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Death from Illness, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied Emotional Neglect by Parental Figure, Implied Emotional Neglect by Sibling Figure, Loredump, M/M, Minor Character Death (Mentioned), Miscommunication Cleared Up, Reconciliation, Spoilers, Systemic Inequality (Canon-typical)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:35:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29596344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowMercury/pseuds/SnowMercury
Summary: Silverstar searches out Rowanbark, and wants to know why he abandoned SilverClan. She wants to do better.Takes place after Arc 1(which has not concluded), and before Arc 2. Written by ST author, contains spoilers for unposted portions of the comic.
Relationships: Rowanbark & Silverwing|Silverstar the Wise 2, Rowanbark/Daywalker|Daystar the Brave (mentioned), Rowanbark/Toothcloud (mentioned)
Series: Silverwing's Tale Novellas/Mini-fics/Super Editions/Etc [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2174373





	A Conversation After the Stars

“I’m sorry, Rowanbark. I didn’t know what I asked of you, then, and I think I still don’t. Not fully.”

Silverstar looks to her brother then, away from the desert sky. How strange it is, that this sky they were raised under is where they have reconciled under. Endings begetting beginnings.

Rowanbark looks to the stars still.

“I don’t know if you ever will know, fully.”

She recognizes this for what it is- not an admonishment, but a confession. Rowan does not know if he can fully explain how what happened affected him. He doesn’t want to know, maybe. His admittance that there was some hurt was something pulled from his claws and jaws, rough and grasping. It had not been easy.

Silver slow blinks at him, the closing of her eyes one of the truest hugs a cat can give. 

“I understand. But whatever you want to share, I am here to listen. I won’t turn away. Not again.” And here are her own unspoken words and implications. She is ready to be a sister more than she has ever been. Maybe it was the death of their father that brought them together in some odd way, after tearing them apart. Maybe it was her experience as a leader, or her discussions with Lizardstar late into the night. Maybe it was Rowan’s own words, finally given air to breathe. 

Whatever it was, it had compounded into one simple truth. Silver wanted to be a better sister than she had been. 

Rowan deflates, relaxes- but not fast. It is more like the leech of ink from a well, seeping. 

“Maybe I can tell you about him. Daywalker. About Rosestar.” 

Something distant enough that it does not judge the contents of her words. Rosestar and Daywalker’s actions were wholly their own, and Silver’s utter detestation of them aside, there was no way their actions reflected on hers. Except perhaps in the judgement that they were somehow preferable to her leadership. 

Silver stays silent. Rowan continues.

“I think I saw myself in him. Dad. He gave up his lives for Harepaw, again and again and again. The perfect picture of a leader.” He interrupts himself with a scornful laugh, “Never mind that he left behind a mate and five kids. Never mind that Violet barely knew him, or that he was needed here. Never mind that Fallingmoon never met her grandfather, that your kits will never know him either.”

Rowan falls silent, except for his breathing. He looks to Silver.

“I thought- if that was how he ended, so fast, taken by some illness. If he sacrificed himself, never allowed himself to live like he surely wanted to- what would happen to me, in the end?”

Rowan’s voice is gravelly, genuine, and almost a whisper by the end. 

“I gave up so much of my life, doing what you asked of me. And I saw that in him, that he’d do anything we asked of him. And as much as I love him, in that second? When he died for the final time? All I could think was how I would hate to be him.”

Silver bites her own tongue, not to prevent any kind of interruption, but because if she didn’t she thinks she might cry.

Rowan continues.

“So I ran. I left Toothcloud without another word, left you, left the clan. Rosestar offered me the chance to be a warrior, and it’s not- I didn’t want to spill blood. I didn’t want to hurt. But I wanted to prove I was capable, that you all could trust me. To fight, to protect. And I know, I know now that joining another clan wasn’t the way to do that. But it was all I could think of, then.”

It was an unenviable position, pushed to be a medic when one wished to prevent injuries to loved ones, not treat them. Rowan looks down now, to his paws.

“So when Rosestar offered the position of deputy to me, when she said I could  _ do _ something for a change. When she said I could show you, show the others that I’m not some beast that death follows, I leapt at the chance. Proof through inaction, it’s hard to have patience for. I wish I had. You know how Rosestar was.”

Indeed she did know. Silver had dealt with her often, in her capacity as leader. Had seen her niece with wounds from an attempted assassination by the excommunicated Rosestar, now Rosepetal once again due to the coup. Rosepetal’s leadership had been a tyranny born of Starclan’s mandate itself, a stellar example of what happens when a cat is forced into a position they don’t want. 

In some lights, she could have been a tragedy herself. First born, Rosepetal had had goals for a normal life, a mate, a litter. But her leader died with no deputy, leaving the next leader up to a vote. And the seemingly dependable Rosepetal had been first choice.

Silver frowned to herself. Rosepetal’s actions were anything but commendable. So focused she was on getting her family to the same afterlife as her, and full of resentment for her position and the clan that put her in it, she had murdered innocents and tried to pull her own family down with her. She tore apart families and incited feuds with cats who were simply trying to live their lives, claiming they were breaking some rule when none existed. 

It was important to remember that Rosepetal had her opportunities, and spat at the paws that offered them as often as she clawed them. 

Silver was confident that Rosepetal would not be remembered, and that her name would be torn from the records, replaced with epitaphs or ‘the vile cat’. That was one tradition she was glad to keep.

Rowan continued.

“She wasn’t unfair to me, which made it all the harder to see how she treated her family. How she treated her clan. Daywalker, he had been next in line for the role of deputy, and we… Didn’t get along. Not at first.”

Here Rowan pauses, glancing to Silver and then back to his paws. 

“It took the fight with Toothcloud for him to talk to me, really. That was the first time he saw what I had given up, I think. I’d say he was envious, but it was more like jealousy. And being alone, second in line to a tyrant in another clan, he was comforting. To a degree.”

Rowan’s tail curls around his paws. 

“When Rosestar started to get worse, when she became obsessed with you, I told him about you. Not everything. But I told him about life in Silverclan, about the lightheartedness, the openness. About how the rules were made around the cats, and were reevaluated often. I don’t think he’d considered that there was another way, that being good didn’t always mean following the rules. And he came to a decision.”

Silver knows this, but he continues still.

“I woke up the next day to a newly appointed Daystar the Brave, the Protector. Rosestar never gave me an epithet, nor Day, but the clan voted again. To a much better result this time. But that was when it started to fall apart.”

He takes a deep breath, and relaxes again.

“Daystar was distant. He pulled away. Where Rosestar had dragged her children and mate into the deputy position, hoping to get them as the next leader so they would stay together in Moonclan at their deaths, Daystar simply decided he wouldn’t get close enough to want to do anything like that.”

Silver nodded, and was about to speak before Rowan spoke again.

“I don’t have the same feelings for him now that I did, for me that spot is now permanently for Toothcloud. But I’m glad he doesn't have Moonclan looming over him anymore. He deserves his chance to find happiness, in whatever that means for him.”

“And I’m sorry that his leadership was a duty to him. You know how I was when I was young, so caught up in dreams and hopes. I’m just glad he’s alive, that you’re alive. That we have this chance to do better than what the former Starclanners chose to do, and make life into.”

She leans against him, offering comfort.

“Maybe we’ll see Hawk and Bronze out there, too.”

“Maybe.”

  
  



End file.
